NOVAkILL

Let's face it. Most of the freeware synths are lame, becouse if they weren't, they'd be payware. Logical thing in this society. But every rule has it's exceptions. In this case NovaKILL... (aaand TAL, but that's not the story now)

User Interface 9,5/10

I've always been fan of Novakill. You need to get used to their interfaces, but as far as estetical thinking... top notch. Amazing designs! I wonder who does graphic for this. Rreally cool.

And layout? Well as soon as you find it, you'll see it's very logical! :)

Features 9/10

NEOkiller is more like classical synth, but with amazing mod matrix, distortion and such. It's not any modular beast, but in terms of freeware, you can't got any higher. I own payware synths with much less features than NEOkiller. Absolutely no complain.

Sound 10/10

HOW? HOW?!?! I mean... how is it possible they don't want to make money on this? It's amazing. I try it calm down a little, but in it's true core it's just hardcore killer for big distorted leads. Almost no CPU consumption so no problem to layer it as hell too.

Stability 10/10

No crashes.

Verdict:

Everyone not using these don't know about them. Nothing in between. One of... no... THE best FW synths ever made. Synth1 is cool, but this kick butts in really big style!

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This will be my first KVR review, and it's for the most useful synth I've DL-ed in quite awhile, the NitreousPM. The thing to remember is that if you turn on the retrigger on the mod envelope, click the "v" over the Envelope knob on the filter and then turn Hard Sync about halfway up, some cool FM sounds can be had. The filter needs to be LP 24db and A, D, & R on the mod envelope need to be at zero with S close to zero. Another great group of sounds are the mono chordal leads, with the Hard Sync knob tuning the overtone. I was also impressed with the basses I was able to make. Hard basses, soft basses, resonant, overdriven, "plop" sounds. The list goes on. It's easy to do moogy-sounding leads on this synth too. For these, turn off Retrigger and leave Hard Sync off. The only thing I don't like is the Unison, since it introduces pops and crackles into the sound. Can't have everything.
So that's my review, essentially a little tour around the NitreousPM. I was captivated by the synth for over a month and made way more patches than eventually went into the 64-preset bank I uploaded here. If you like mono basses and leads of all kinds then NitreousPM is your girl.Read Review

Ahh what a turn around, I was once jadded on this synth because of the Very hard edge and type of music that comes out of it was not for my liking. But and i do mean BUT this has gone under a revision and I tried it agian, much to my suprise everything that i dis liked had nearly been addresed and now this is one of my go-to synths, Im not one to do reviews or offer out high praise as I have nearly every synth that i need to have and some that i dont need to have :)

But this is one synth that deserves the name kILLer , cause it is certianly that and then some. Im impressed at the care and prompt service that BONES and his team has shown this baby and here hoping that they continue to make all there kiLLer line of products as good as can be.

I didnt think synth edit was this good but Bones has proven me wrong. right up there with the best of the best of what synth edit can do. Now just think what you could do if you had some flesh lol

Ok On with my review User interface has improved and now it dosent make my mouse jitter so whatever they did they did good in this area im happy.

Sound: Vastly improved as it dosent crackle anymore and has a very distinct character to it that i find tasty. so without reservations the sound is GREAT

Features: Well this thing is jamed with stuff to mangle and destroy with , its a virtual playground of destruction Muhahaha Just kiddin but serious its very handy and intutive to boot.

Documentation: Well there i find it lacking but the GUI and user functions are all self explanatory if you have a novices idea of filters and lfos and what not

Presets: Humm I have to say they have improved to a degree where I now use this synth in alot of my current projects and I have a ton of synths to call on, which is a testament to the strength of this synth.

Customer support: Here is where it all counts as far as im concerned, its ppl like BONES and his team who dont rest on there laurels cranking out copycat synths but listen to its customer base and really trys to implement functions that are needed in a timley fashion and all the while helping other ppl here on Kvr with problems in any area that hey can, so I would say A+ to this area

Value for money : Well there are a ton of things out here and the thing i valus the most is my time so lets be BLUNDT about this, get this synth you wont be sorry.

Stable: Hasnt crashed on me yet like the old one did on me several times, which is why im so happy now that things are working proper with this synth, as it really fills a gap in a way or synths have not so i rely on it alot and it has not let me down once.

Thanks guys and keep on rocking and making synths too. special thanks to BONES for listening :)Read Review

I feel this is currently the best of BONES efforts; and perhaps the very best SE design ive seen. A very powerful, clean sounding little synth. In my opinion it is a bit lite on features, but then everything which it includes is useful.

Actually, that is the primary benefit of buiding with SE -- you build to suite yourself. You can *afford* to leave stuff off and tailor the synth to your exact idea of perfection (in this case, BONES idea).

The little Karma is a refreshing change from the trendy "everything plus the kitchen sink" monster synths of the past two years.

GUI -- A little too dark for my tastes; but the green indicators *really* stand out well. From an artistic standpoint, it is very well executed; it has a professional look to it and it flows better than most synth designs (considering everything here at KVR).

SOUND -- This synth delivers. The sound is pure SE, and that is actually a good thing. You might be surprised to learn that there are only a handful of synths out there with better quality oscillators. And, you can easily prove this to yourself; heres how...

Pick any two synths and do an AB comparison of their saw wave. Turn off *all* modifiers (ie, amp envelop, filters, effects), so you are just listening to a single, pure osc. Pitch the synths up two octaves and compare notes in the highest octave your ears can hear. Now, pitch the synths down two octaves and play notes in the lowest octave. Finally, play a chromatic scale in the middle octave, listening carefully for changes in timbre. There should not be any changes; if there are, it is a weakness of the osc.

SE passes all these tests with flying colors; you would be surprized at many of those which do not.

Unfortunitely, SE does not have the best filters. They are very good, but not the very best.

FEATURES -- Karma has a well rounded feature set. It is a bit lite for my tastes (just a tad), but it does have enough to produce a wide variety of sounds.

DOCS -- It has been brought to my attention that there are, in fact, docs; a nice touch. But this synth is obvious, and it has tooltips; nothing else is needed really.

PRESETS -- By freebie standards, it is rich. By pro standards, a bit lite on quantity.

SUPPORT -- BONES is always available here at KVR to provide support, mainly in the form of opinions.

VFM -- excellent; this is a forth order iterated design, executed with class and style.

STABILITY -- There are some issues here; namely with the dual mode toggle and with mono mode note sticking. For me, the work around is 1) dont toggle dual while playing 2) dont use mono mode.Read Review

It's the little things that mean the most is what my mother used to say. But I guess she never thought I'd use her words on a site such as this.

For a little while I have been working with this small synth that has I think only 16 preset-slots. It's basic looking controls are few and at first sight one may quickly overlook this synth, but......

The quality of sound this one brings forth is absolutely something to try for yourselves.

The mod-envelope works with very much detail and is of high quality, and changing the unison/detune brings the stereo-field alive. P-mod and Pitch allow a sound to be fully modeled to the tune you are working on.

There are some nits however, which somehow I hope BONES will pick up to make this even into more of a monstrous synth. The sliders are relatively small and give no metrical indication of the settings, and changing the sliders while playing will cause little clicks, which make it virtually impossible to record live tweaks. And there is no midi control here either.

Given this last I still give this synth a place in my folder simply because it delivers!

I can only hope to convince BONES to pick the development back up....Read Review

User Interface: 'Seems pretty straight-forward and efficient. The 'killer synths' series have a very distintive look to them, which most people may or may not have an opinion of by now. I find iD-Killer's interface to be efficient; it's easy to follow and doesn't clutter the screen. :)

Sound: Phase-distortion. This synth is similar to the CZ-series made by Casio in the 80's. Since I've never owned any of those, I can't comment on how 'authentic' it is, but I find PD(and iDk) to have a very unusual character. It's somewhere between FM and Analog(to sum it up quickly), and I like the fact that the sound of this synth can easily be made as fat or thin as you need it to be. Yes - there IS a place for thin sounds in some mixes! Of course, if you don't like PD sounds, you might not be interested in this synth, which is understandable.

Features: Not a boat-load of features here, but I suspect the developer was trying to keep it simple on purpose. No filters here(true to the design of the CZ series, I believe...), but there are some resonant waveforms that will do the job nicely if you need some resonance. I would've liked more modulation options, and maybe some more waveforms(or even oscs). Variable 1-16 note polyphony. 8 seems to work well on my setup(1.9 ghz AMD athlon 2600). No built-in effects, but again I don't see a problem here since most(not all but most) sequencers/hosts/whatever you want to call them have effects.

Docs: Well-written, thoughtly explained docs on the Novakill website. Very helpful if you aren't an illiterate Neanderthal. * raises hand *

Presets: Not many here(16), and I would've liked more - but I think this is a limitation of Synthedit(?). The presets are not bad, but they are so easy to edit that it's not really a problem if you don't like them.

Support: I haven't needed any yet, but the developer(Bones) seems to be very active on here, and from what I've seen so far has been very helpful.

VFM: It's free, it does the job is was made for more than adequately, and it didn't crash my pc or studio apps. To me, this is great VFM. I honestly don't see how any one could go wrong with something like this, unless of course you don't like PD sounds. :)

Stability: About 14-19% on my 1.9 ghz AMD. You can reduce the cpu usage by turning down the 'unison' voices. No crashes so far. Seems stable enough.

Of course, no one should be taking my word for anything I've said here - so give iDkiller a whirl. If you are looking for something a little different, this is yet another good place to start.Read Review